And if that long list of 90 overused services wasn't enough, a new study published in JAMA Surgery has found that weight loss surgery doesn't result in long-term savings. Patients who underwent such an operation still had average annual claims up to $9,900, and those costs were either higher than or the same than patients who didn't have bariatric surgery.

Now, payers are in a position of power to help dial back the amount of unnecessary medical tests and procedures that doctors provide. They could, for example, limit reimbursements for these services, require doctors to provide justification before performing the services or even deny coverage of these services.

At the very least, though, payers have in hand a definitive set of guidelines they can use to steer their networked providers away from these unnecessary tests and procedures, thereby lowering costs and helping ensure medical care is based in quality not quantity.

It's time that payers took the reins and steered the healthcare crisis themselves, even if that means withholding payments for certain tests and procedures. Of course, they must clearly communicate any new reimbursement practices to doctors and hospitals; otherwise, any unpaid claims inevitably would end up becoming the patients' burden. And that's certainly not the goal of payment reform. Rather, they want doctors to advise patients against these unhelpful tests and procedures.

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